Tuskegee airman talks about experiences

Tuskegee airman Col. Washington Ross is 93 years young and having the time of his life.

Ross, who spoke Thursday at Macomb Community College’s South Campus Library in Warren, travels the Midwest talking about his experiences as a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, an all-black group of World War II U.S. military aviators. He spent much of his military time flying 63 missions in the European theater in the mid-1940s.

Much of his career was spent in Italy supporting heavy bomber groups. The Mississippi native, who was raised in Ashland, Ky., was glad to get home.

Ross graduated from Hampton Institute with a bachelor’s degree in teaching. While studying at Hampton, he became interested in flying.

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He learned how to fly military training planes and a Piper Cub. His favorite plane to fly depended on his mission.

He remembered one morning when he was back home at Selfridge Air National Guard Base and flying near Yale, Mich., when he crashed. He said the entire community came out to see him walking around dazed in his flying suit, oxygen mask, goggles and parachute.

They asked then Lt. Ross: “Where you flying that?” He told them he wasn’t.

“I told them a gremlin was flying the plane,” Ross laughed.

Ross said back at flight school some students who washed out blamed racism. He didn’t buy it.

“I told them you washed out because you couldn’t land your plane,” he said.

During his tour in Europe, Ross said he spent many hours escorting bombers, but did not shoot down any German aircraft. In fact, Ross said, he never saw a German plane up close.

He said the most terrifying duty he had was strafing when he had to fly very low and didn’t even know the location of the targets. He said he was too low to jump out of his plane, if it became necessary.

“If we got captured by the Luftwaffe (German air forces), you were OK,” Ross said. “(But) the (German) people would kill you with rakes or guns.”

Had black soldiers been captured, escape was unlikely, Ross said. Blacks were rare in the German countryside dominated by blond-haired, blue-eyed Aryans.

Ross said more than 50,000 pilots flew during World War II.

“The last time I (flew) was way back in 1946,” Ross said. “Now all I do is talk about it.”